Power to the People

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Yu has even taken a page from civil rights struggles elsewhere by promoting a living symbol for the anti-dam movement. Ge Quanxiao, a farmer from the Jinsha River area, stands to lose his home to a planned dam. Yu arranged elocution lessons for Ge and taught him to protect himself by invoking political slogans introduced by China's leader, Hu Jintao. He brought Ge to Beijing to address a United Nations Development Program conference on dams and plead for villagers' right to review settlement plans. Most of all, Yu armed Ge with information to take back to his fellow villagers. "We've survived wars and we've survived earthquakes," Ge tells them. "I don't know if we'll survive dams."

Thanks to such pressure, Beijing has at least started to plan more carefully. Wang Yongchen, a radio journalist who runs the China Rivers Network, an umbrella organization for anti-dam groups, meets frequently with officials at the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) to argue that mandatory environmental impact assessments are often inadequate. SEPA agreed and issued desist orders in January to 30 construction projects. Although construction has restarted on all but four, Wang realized that "we can work with the government."

Yet such incremental successes cause little celebration in remote villages. After the peasants returned home from the Manwan Dam, police called a meeting. "They told us we'll bear responsibility if anybody talks about what was seen," says a villager. "Now we know the real situation, but there's nothing we can do." A few miles upstream, workers for the China Huadian Corp. are drilling 500-ft.-deep holes as part of the proposed dam's geological test. The government has not divulged its plans. And the party has ordered newspapers to stop reporting on debates over dam construction. But opposition to dams has become the emblem of activism in China--for now. The movement remains vulnerable, and the government could quickly view it as a threat. "A few extreme people could have the whole movement considered anti--Communist Party, which it is not," says Yu Xiaogang. "But if we can keep discipline, we will be strong." There is a lot more than dams at stake.